Carpe Data

Carpe Data operates as a data-as-a-service (DaaS) provider for the insurance industry, transforming publicly available, alternative data into actionable insights for carriers. The company was founded in Santa Barbara, California, in 2016 by CEO Max Drucker and COO Geoff Andrews. This venture followed their previous collaboration at Social Intelligence Corp, a company that pioneered the use of social media for pre-employment screening. Drucker, a serial entrepreneur in the InsurTech space, previously co-founded eCoverage, the first online auto insurance company, and Steel Card, an early web-based software provider for carriers, which was acquired by ChoicePoint (now part of LexisNexis). This background provided the founders with deep-seated knowledge of the insurance industry's reliance on traditional data and the opportunity to disrupt the insurance data market.

The firm’s business model is centered on providing predictive scoring and data products to Property & Casualty (P&C) and life insurance companies, including major carriers like Allstate, Travelers, and The Hartford. Carpe Data utilizes proprietary algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze emerging data sources—such as social media, online content, and web presence—to enhance various stages of the insurance lifecycle. Revenue is generated by offering these data products to insurers, enabling them to automate processes, improve risk assessment, and detect fraud. In April 2022, private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) acquired a majority stake in the company, a strategic move intended to accelerate growth and expand market position.

Carpe Data offers two primary product suites: Minerva for commercial underwriting and ClaimsX for claims processing. Minerva provides underwriters with real-time data on over 45 million businesses, allowing for better classification, risk evaluation, and pricing for small and medium-sized enterprises. The platform can deliver industry classifications in under a second and identify complex risk characteristics, such as business anomalies or loss-prone behaviors. ClaimsX focuses on the claims handling process by monitoring a claimant's online activity from the first notice of loss through settlement. It provides automated alerts to adjusters when online activities contradict the facts of a bodily injury or disability claim, thereby helping to identify potential exaggeration or fraud. By analyzing billions of digital data points, these products aim to reduce manual research, lower costs, and provide insurers with a competitive edge through more accurate and timely decision-making.

Keywords: insurance data, predictive analytics, InsurTech, alternative data, risk assessment, underwriting automation, claims fraud detection, commercial insurance, P&C insurance, data-as-a-service, DaaS, Max Drucker, predictive scoring, risk management, small business underwriting, workers' compensation insurance, artificial intelligence in insurance, policy lifecycle management, Minerva, ClaimsX, Thomas H. Lee Partners, commercial lines, property and casualty